


Broken Oaths

by LyssaTerald



Series: The Liesmith's Fall [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Adventures: Avengers, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 22:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13599924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyssaTerald/pseuds/LyssaTerald
Summary: When Loki tries to do good for Asgard and prevent the schemes of another realm, his family gets caught up in the fall out and pays the price. Herein lies a story of grief and broken faith even as Loki and Sigyn navigate the paths of keeping their marriage together.





	Broken Oaths

_“From faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For faith bought in faith shall be returned in faith until faith be broken. For without faith, there can be no justice.”_

She had said those words so very long ago, sworn her oaths as Asgard’s Healer and heard them returned in kind to her. Standing there before the waters that lapped gently at the stone docks, watching the flames consume the bodies of her children within the slowly receding forms of the boats, she remembered those words just as she remembered the lightning that had lanced through her during their execution. Her voice still ached from screaming and pleading while they had torn into each other’s flesh and the court had watched. While _Thor_ had kept her from them.

Standing there beside Frigga with her hands folded over her stomach and the tears long dried, she watched the flames grow distant and she remembered. Those words had once been her bonded oath, once held her captive in a land of warriors she hated. And now that their hold was _gone_...she’d have given anything to return to the morning before and held her boys just that much longer.

Narvi and Vali. They were dead and gone to pay the price for a freedom she no longer wanted, executed for the slights their father had inflicted on the dwarves.

Frigga touched her arm, something meant to be comforting. The older woman leaned close to her and murmured, “You will see them again in Valhalla. Their deaths-”

Sigyn turned to face her and shrugged away from the touch. “Valhalla is for the souls of Asgard’s warriors, _not_ my children. Narvi and Vali will spend an eternity with Hela,” she returned, voice breaking. Then, with a stiff bow, concluded, “Forgive me, my queen, but I would rather pass the time with Heimdal awaiting the return of my husband than celebrating the execution of my sons.”

She heard the whispered words of those gathered, saw the way that they watched her. She saw the disdain flickering in their eyes. She saw the way that Thor looked at her, the worry and regret etching into every line of his face.  Silence followed her off those docks and she couldn't have cared less. For all that Frigga had done in the past, it didn't matter. For all the friendship and company she, the Warriors Three and Sif had shared over the millennia, it didn’t matter. For all that she had been faithful and sacrificed to keep Asgard’s warriors strong, _it didn't matter_. All her loyalty had earned them was a knife in her heart and the ashes of her boys.

Hogun stood at the end of the dock, waiting for her. She didn't even pause as she flicked a cold look at him and continued past. His hand shot out to grip her arm and she caught his two littlest fingers, twisting them with a quick _crack._ To his credit, he didn't make a sound as he went to one knee before her.

“Lady,” he said quietly and there was a world of sorrow in that one word.

She relaxed her grip and he slid his hand around hers while holding her gaze. There was a brief flare of light between them as power flowed into him and healed those fingers. Then she was turning away, leaving her kinsman behind her.

The walk from that dock, from those fires was a long one, and yet it wasn’t enough. Narvi and Vali. Narvi had been accusing Vali just that morning of stealing some piece of spellwork he had been working on for _months_ and she…Vali had just stood there wearing their father’s smirk, taunting his brother with the pages he actually _had_ stolen. And she, she had scolded Vali and confiscated the papers, telling _her_ boys that if they couldn’t get along then neither of them would have the papers until tomorrow.

_Tomorrow._

The word wrapped around her heart and _squeezed_ until she couldn’t remember how to breathe. She hadn’t even told them that she loved them. The words hadn’t even occurred to her. She’d been so damn busy trying to get ready and they had been _arguing_. _Again._  

* * *

Heimdal was a silent presence at her side, a comfort and a sorrow wrapped in the same form as she waited. For all that Asgard had wronged her, for all the empty words of sorrow and praise she had received since the execution, he let her have the silence that she needed.

And for his part? He knew what had passed, knew what had truly happened and the words that had passed between his king and each involved in the decision that had led to the execution of the little boys that had once played at his feet and gifted him with enchanted mud. He grieved for their loss and for the loss of a future that might have been and although there were many words he could have given her, she knew them all. Silence in the face of her tears was what she wanted, _needed,_ and so he said nothing at all. He waited at her side and paid silent witness to the atrocities that were the reward of her husband’s work for the _trickery_ Loki had used to thwart the plans for war the dwarves had harbored.

* * *

When the bridge activated and forms began to materialize, she was stepping forward before she thought about it. Loki was the first to step onto the bridge, bloody, gagged, and chained but head high and shoulders set. The dwarves that followed him and held his chains wore their traditional battle armor and the smuggest damn expressions she had ever seen, until they met her gaze. Their’s and those who had been present at the execution were faces she would never forget.

For the moment, she ignored them and took a closer look at her husband, noting the dried blood and how lean he had become in the days since his capture. They were saying something to Heimdal, their tones mildly gloating but it wasn't until she reached a hand to Loki’s cheek that they paid her any mind. The dwarf holding the chains attached to Loki’s wristlets shook them at her.

 "Hands off the prisoner, whore,” the dwarf said, smirking.

The look remained for all of two seconds before she seized the chains and froze them solid, ice racing up the dwarf’s arm. He took a step back, shaking his hand and swearing when the chain shattered between her fingers.

“Hands off my husband, dwarfling, lest I remember you better at the time of balance,” she returned. The look that she and Loki exchanged was a dark one, full of pain and promise and understanding.

“Control your pet, Watcher,” said another dwarf.

Whatever she or Heimdal might have said was interrupted by the ringing sound of hoof beats pounding their way down the bridge. Sigyn turned just enough to confirm that it was, indeed, Thor and the Warriors Three on their way to collect them and meet with the dwarves.

Fury rose up in her with such sudden intensity that threw the power that rose to her hands without thinking, seized Loki’s arm, and teleported them away without any thought to their destination. The world compressed around them and squeezed painfully as they slid through the darkness and cold between realms until they toppled together onto the hard flooring of a familiar room.

Loki took the brunt of their weight on his shoulder and groaned when she crashed painfully into him. Silence was their only companion as they lay there and fought to regain their breath.

Sigyn levered herself onto her hands and sat up at his side. With her face hidden behind a tangle of hair, she rubbed her eyes and sighed. It hadn't been her wisest move to throw spells at Thor, but she hadn’t been about to leave Loki to the tender mercies of his family after everything that had happened.


End file.
